Having to activate a patch? » Forum Post by george01

You can activate without internet access. They will do the activation by email if needs be and since you can go online and post here you no doubt have access to email.

I believe the position they take is that any enhancements require activation. i.e. you can play the game you bought and paid for (as you point out v1.0) with no bother.

Look at it another way - all the enhancements in the patches are free. If you read the Change Log for 1.1 its a veritable tomb of changes, tweaks and yes, bug fixes. They get no more money for developing this AND they are moving onto 1.2.

Activation p'd me off at the start too, but since I get lots of great extras for near zero effort I dont much care anymore (now that I know which serial number they mean!).

I am willing to bet that the patches are going to make it play like a different game too... not bad in my book!

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Just wondering if it relates to verification. I am sure that people will eventually pass the game around. Have to login means you have to have an access code. People might be able to download the game on p2p but they will not be able to upgrade or patch it.

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I think their copy protection scheme is genius. Everyone wins from what I can tell. For the very small inconvenience of activating once, and I have only had to do it once since I bought the game, you get free content updates. What's not to like?

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My understanding is that once you activate the product you won't have to do it again.

I bought the USA boxed version, installed it from the CD, then used Stardock Central to register the game and download the first official patch and some of the betas. This process gave me the sig.bin file.

Last week I downloaded the 1.1 patch from their web site, then installed it last night (didn't use Stardock Central). It never asked me to activate - most likely because I already had the sig.bin file.

-HM

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I think the whole sig.bin concept is very confusing. I updated to 1.1 the other day. No problem but I did not "get it" that if I didn't follow the vague (IMHO) sig.bin instructions I would have to use my serial number.

it wasn't a big deal but the sig.bin just made no sense to me. I already have the game registered and my key entered. The updater should be able to handle this. Just my 2 cents.

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It's been 65-hours since my original request for an email activation file. I still have not received any updates. Thanks for the great cutomer service, NOT!!!

BTW, thanks for finally admitting there is a problem with your activation system. Unfortunately, what is blatantly missing from the outside of the retail box is 'Internet Connection Required'. You don't find this out until you open the box and read the manual; which by that time is too late to return the game to the retailer. Being x-ray vision impaired, I would think there are many others out there who suffer from the same deficit. On top of all that, I challenge anyone to truthfully admit to reading through the manual before ripping open the CD packaging for install just to see what the game looks like.

Link

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Activating a patch, IMHO, is downright silly. No where on the box did it say that an internet connection is needed to activate the game. And in anticipation of all of you who will say I don't need an internet connection because I can email-activate the game, might I remind you that you need an internet connection to email. When I downloaded the patch I was informed that I'd need my serial number, but nothing about having to activate the game. Now I can't play at all. (And No, I'm not willing to uninstall and re-install just to be able to play the old version.)

I'm now in my third day of waiting for stardock to send my the reg code or whatever, by email.

Copy protection free my a$%...

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They say "No CD copy protection", which is true, and you don't need an internet connection to play the game. You don't need a connection to update the game. You only have to activate once. Sounds like a lot of crying over nothing, to me.

I read the manual online before I bought the game.

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Auran does the same thing with Trainz Railroad Simulator 2006, and trust me it works better then any copy protection I ever seen. Heck look at Microsoft now with Windows XP. Also, I computer nowdays without an internet connection is like a car without an engine.

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Yes they say "No CD copy protection". Except they say it in the manual, SEALED in the box. No where does the box state "No CD copy protection" or anything relating to having an Internet connection.

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The retial box copy does indeed have zero protection on it.

However, once you install a patch on it you are effectively converting your installation to the digital download version, which requires a one-time activation. If you install via SDC, this is done automatically and you never notice. If you download the patch installer from the site, you will get an activation prompt when you next run the game.

If you have an internet connection, it's a simple affair of typing in your email address and serial number, then you're never bugged by it again. Backing up the game via SDC will include the sig.bim file, so if you wish to reinstall later on the same machine you can do so from an SDC backup without reactivating.

If you don't have internet on your GC2 machine, you'll need to copy a code off and email it to stardock in exchange for a sig/bin file. Just keep in mind (Gookamundo) that a person has to read your email and send the sig.bin back to you. So don't expect a response during the weekend or outside normal office hours (US EDT time zone).

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Whats with having to activate a patch? I can't think of any other games that do this. I thought that stardock were trying to make things more convenient for the user by e.g not having the game needing the cd in the drive to play. I can't play the game anymore because I don't have an internet connection to activate. This level of anti-piracy is madness! btw I've seen stardocks response to this issue and it seems that it would be better for me to just reinstall 1.0 and hope that with patch 1.2 I can install and play. Anyone else agree?

Nope, I couldn't disagree more. You can get the game up and running without needing any activation, but then if you want to patch you need to verify you own the game using a code from the manual which you enter once and only once, and is then remembered for any future patches you install.

They said they were against tying you to the CD, not copy-protection itself. It's a perfectly reasonable system IMO, and I'm rather keen on it. Not to mention that in my limited experience, protecting the patches is far more likely to stop piracy than protecting the retail copy.

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ScottTykoski

Join Date 03/2001

+132

Please note that from the start it's been stance that the ONLY TIME the serial number would be needed was for updates and to submit to the metaverse. And, even then, it should only have to be activated once.

Tom (Gookamundo): We've looked for your activation request in our email database but haven't been able to locate it Please see this post (https://forums.galciv2.com/?ForumID=162&AID=115671#888635) for more info on what we can do to help you out. Again, we're sorry of the inconvenience of activating patches for offline players, but we are working to make the system as painless as possible for all customers.

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Hmmm. I didn't have to activate to get the patch or after the patch. Then again, I activated when I first bought the game.

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Yarlen

Join Date 01/2005

+369

Which is why you didn't have to activate again.

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Imho this is the best system I've seen by far.

No permanent connection needed like steam (steam... grrr...).

No useless cd copy protection that just cripples my dvd burner (starforce... grrr...).

No useless protection that forces me to deactivate Nero or some other cd-emulation program (grrr...).

No need for a CD or DVD in your drive.

Able to play it without the need of an activation.

Able to download the game when you've lost a CD. (Hey, that happens to me lots of times...

)

Activation is just needed for a patch once, which isn't that problematic if it needs a day or two.

... you know... this system just rocks.

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Activating a patch, IMHO, is downright silly. No where on the box did it say that an internet connection is needed to activate the game. And in anticipation of all of you who will say I don't need an internet connection because I can email-activate the game, might I remind you that you need an internet connection to email. When I downloaded the patch I was informed that I'd need my serial number, but nothing about having to activate the game.

See. Here's the thing. You don't need an internet connection for the game out of the box. You need an internet connection, or access to e-mail to activate the patch... which you have to download anyway. So, anyone who needs to activate, has the patch, and therefor has access to the internet in some way.

-Neb

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It's less an activation system as a registration system. It is pretty common in non-game software and leads to better support in the long term.

Once a user has registered with the systme, they can redownload the entire game from us in the future. The number of people who will likely have an issue having to type in their serial # on an Internet connection is probably far fewer than the number of people who will lose or damage their CD in the next 5 years and make use of the ability to redownload the entire game.

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I suggest there is a prompt on future patches before installation suggesting that users will need an internet connection in order to continue to use the software afterwards. Imagine installing an XP service pack and you could no longer use your computer without instant activation (registration)!

Btw XP can be activated over the telephone. It takes around 2-3 minutes. Registration for support benefits is OPTIONAL not mandatory. Stardock - take note and accommodate all your users which will maximize your profits. Apology accepted though.

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